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Episode 1: A Start + Kingsport
You are in the SEU reading room at Orne Library at Miskatonic University on Friday morning in April 1925. A nervous young man, Felix Curtis, knocks on the door and is spoken with by Dr Fitzgerald and Harry and explains he is concerned about his missing roommate, James Frazer, at Salem University and how he hasn’t been seen in 3 days since Tuesday. Felix and James are from families of some means and so do not want to get the police involved and they don’t trust them… he explains how he knows of you through his uncle, Bertrand Merriweather, son of Rupert Merriweather who recently died and the unseen horror in the attic of his friend’s (Marion Allen) cabin has since escaped but you don’t know of any specific murders it’s caused. Dr Fitzgerald attempts to see if he or James is undead or dead but they both seem perfectly alive and normal. Felix says how close James and his girlfriend, Emily Livingstone, were, that they were basically inseparable, and that he thinks they went to the “talkies” on Monday night and he hasn’t seen James since when he got back from class on Tuesday. The investigators go to the Mayweather dorms where Emily lives and encounter several students (Charlotte Sanders who lives down the hall from Emily, Jim Doyle who is not a super bright football player and who notes others were interested in becoming QB, and Betty Matthis who lives next door to Emily in 202 who tells you they were planning a romantic getaway this weekend at a hotel in Salem). You find out that James and Felix are in the Hough dorm but there’s nothing significant to be found except a letter that talks about Squatter’s Lake and it seems that there’s a hotel there that Emily & James were going to go visit this weekend for a romantic rendezvous. The investigators also went to the football stadium and the locker rooms but because it’s off-season, there’s not much going on there and the lockers and everything are empty. The investigators go back to the reading room, it’s noted that Nevada is now joining and will be driving Dr Fitzgerald’s car, and Alexandria is also coming but has laryngitis so won’t be able to say much. They pack some clothes and their usual weapons and adventuring gear, get some sleep, then set out early Saturday morning. They drive near Kingsport on the way from Arkham to Salem, but late morning, their car suddenly jerks & lists to one side and won’t move any further; it appears a suspension spring on the front driver’s side has broken and the car is inoperable. They walk ½ mile to Kingsport and find a gas station called the Oily Gasket run by Ross Buckley and his boy Jessie as well as a young man named Dannie who ultimately push the car back to the station. The investigators spend the afternoon looking around the town, visiting the town hall, library, some bars and restaurants, and the law firm and people seem friendly but are not especially helpful; when asked about James Frazer, no one seems to know who he is They head back to the station and find out the part won’t be available for another few days until the weekdays but there’s a nice B&B that they might stay at They check into rooms 101 and 102 and plan to spend the night in the establishment, but first get dinner at the Smiling Cardinal Diner While there, they eat a whole lot of food (including 26 pounds of bacon), but a stranger turns to them from another booth and says that he knows them and is not fooled by their claims that they are just passing through This stranger turns out to be Josh Winscott who just last week inherited a house from his uncle Elijah, who was a slave trader Josh lives in Salem but inherited this house just outside of Kingsport; he went up to Arkham to engage your services and was told by the others at the SEU that you were actually headed down to Salem; he got your photos from your colleagues and recognized you. He explains that he recently was going through the house and trying to find space to store his things, but came upon a door in the basement that apparently opens up into some tunnels that seem spooky and dark and he’d like their help investigating such “unknown” things. Nevada and Harry don’t seem very interested in pursuing this probably normal occurrence given the slave trade and want to continue on to Salem, but Alexandria and Lauren are able to persuade them to come and Josh offers a large amount of cash and a car ride if they come help him out. They finish eating and walk to the house which appears a bit run down though of high quality, and upon closer investigation, Alexandria spots some odd three-toed, webbed foot prints leading from the back door to the woods at which point they are lost. With this, Nevada and Harry are much more engaged and are now eager to investigate with Alexandria and Lauren